1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multifunction printer capable of printing, scanning, copying, facsimile communication, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, great advancements have been made in office automation technology, and various types of equipment such as a printer serving as computer peripheral equipment, a copying machine, or a facsimile machine serving as communication means are now widely used. Inter alia, multifunction printer incorporating a plurality of functions owned by the office automation equipment has been developed. The multifunction printer is especially effective for use in a small office since it has only a small installation space, and thus; the multifunction printer has become popular in small offices. There are several kinds of multifunction printers in which these functions are variously combined.
Explanation will be hereinbelow made of an example of a conventional copying machine. FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate the internal structure of the conventional copying machine. In FIGS. 4 and 5, there are shown a document tray 1 on which an original document to be copied is set. An image of the document is formed via a lens array 2 onto a photoconductive drum 3. In regions surrounding the photoconductive drum 3, there are a developing unit 4, a transferring charger 5, a cleaner 6, and a charger 7 which are arranged in the mentioned-order in the direction of rotation of the photoconductive drum 3, starting with the developing unit 4 located next to an exposure position corresponding to the lens array 2. An electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photoconductive drum 3 at the exposure position, and is then developed by the developing unit 4. Copying paper is fed via a paper feeding path 8 to an image transferring part 9 between the photoconductive drum 3 and the transferring charger 5, and the image is transferred onto the copying paper by the transferring charger 5. The remaining toner is then removed by the cleaner 6, and the outer surface of the photoconductive drum 3 is uniformly charged by the charger 7 so that another latent image may be formed by means of exposure.
Reference numeral 10 denotes a paper feeder 10. Copying paper is fed sheet by sheet to a timing roller 11 via a feeding roller 10a of the paper feeder 10. The timing roller 11 rotates in synchronization with the photoconductive drum 3 so as to send the copying paper to the image transferring part 9 in such a manner that the leading end of the copying paper is aligned with that of the area of the image formed on the photoconductive drum 3. An upper guide 12 and a lower guide 13 are located between the timing roller 11 and the image transferring part 9 so that the copying paper fed by the timing roller 11 is guided to the image transferring part 9. After the image has been transferred onto the copying paper at the image transferring part 9, the copying paper is sent by a paper transferring belt 14 to a fixing part 15 at which the image is fixed by means of heat and pressure. The copying paper is then discharged to the outside of the copying machine.
As shown in FIG. 5, the body of this copying machine is divided into upper and lower body parts 16 and 17 wherein the upper body part 16 includes the photoconductive drum 3, the developing unit 4, and the cleaner 6, and the lower body part 17 includes the timing roller 11, the upper and lower guides 12 and 13, the transferring charger 5, the paper transferring belt 14, and the fixing part 15. The upper body part 16 is supported in such a manner as to be turned around at its one side end as a fulcrum so that the paper feeding path 8 is opened thereby allowing a user to remove jamming paper.
Conventional multifunction printers have a paper transferring mechanism mainly including two paper transferring systems for a printer section and for a scanner section. An outlet is separately formed in each paper transferring system so that when the paper transfer path is jammed with paper the paper may be removed via the outlet. In this case, the jamming paper is sent to the corresponding outlet via auxiliary rollers, and is removed by a human hand.
However, the conventional multifunction printer has a problem that the openings are located separately in respective paper transferring systems, resulting in an increase in the size of the printer. In the copying machine as mentioned above, it has a simpler structure including only one paper transfer path and it is possible to easily remove jamming paper by raising or opening the upper body part 16. In contrast, even though a multifunction printer having a plurality of functions and thus having a plurality of paper transfer paths would be implemented in a similar manner to the copying machine described above so that the structure thereof would allow a user to remove jamming paper from one of transfer paths by rasing the upper body part, it still remains a problem how to remove jamming paper from the other of the transfer paths.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a multifunction printer which can have a smaller size and be installed in a small space and which is capable of easily dealing with jamming for any of a plurality of paper transfer paths incorporated therein.